The notary in the trap
The notary in the trap is a story by Jeremias Gotthelf , which was published in 1848 in the “Alsatian New Year's Papers” by August Stöber in Strasbourg .
content
The 27-year-old Luise, who lives with her widowed aunt, Mrs. Spendvögtin, is invited to her friend's wedding as a bridesmaid. Luise cries tears of joy. Because “her entire life” had “never had a rendezvous”. Together with her bride and groom, she will at least feel like half a married couple. Luise longs for her big day and can hardly think of anything else. The girl suddenly appears to her aunt, her second mother, to be forgetful.
At the deliberate wedding, the bachelor at Luise's side, the notary Stößli, shows his ardent patriotism. The man's pathetic exclamations in no way make Luise jealous of the fatherland. The restrained, pale girl, this “little cheese with little mites”, becomes “red and also fiery in the heart”. When it comes to dancing, it is Luise in Stößli's arms, "as if two angels were floating through the ether".
When she is back to everyday life, the notary no longer takes care of his table lady. Luise cannot get over the inattentiveness of the otherwise so courteous gentleman. The beloved loved one has his “office” in her town not too far away from her domicile “behind the wash house”. She pretends to be ill, waits for her aunt to be absent and calls the young notary over to her. Luise pretends that she has considerable assets, that her end is all too near and that she wants to quickly draw up a will in favor of her aunt beforehand. Unfortunately, she is too sick and inexperienced in such legal matters. Stößli is delighted.
In the presence of his aunt, who has come home, Stößli proposes marriage to the supposedly rich girl. Luise - then again in private with the notary - becomes more meek: “But, what if I had no money?” Stößli insists on the hasty marriage and accepts no objection from the bride and aunt. He married Luise, a modest lady "of principles and education" out of love. As a liberal, the patriotic notary asks about the spirit and not about the money. This is where he differs from the aristocrat.
The people in town cannot understand Luise's unexpected luck. As the notary Luise repeatedly affirmed his love, "the good girl has a certain self-confidence". Suddenly Luise really appears to be beautiful. The day after the wedding, Stößli is sobered when he tries to find out about his wife's assets. Luise - cornered - confesses that she has no fortune. The notary rages. Luise "caught him like a bullfinch". He wants to get a divorce on the spot.
Finally the aunt sees through the cause of the “angry noise” and steps in: If Luise's ruse became known in the town, then she would have the laughs on her side. And “Luise would not be without money”. Notaries - including Stößli - listen carefully to such comments. The marriage will be happy after all. Sometimes Luise asks: "Am I dear to you too?" To which Stößli replies: "With all my heart, almost like the fatherland!"
Quote
- "Everything on earth is coming to an end, even time."
shape
The narrator knows a lot, but he keeps his distance. He writes: “The notary was by nature a very good soul, which actually means good skin. We don't know whether he had a soul. ”Gotthelf not only ironically exposes the notary's weaknesses, but also describes Luise's cunning capture of the husband with a wink. The reader who is keen on his pleasure gets his money's worth. For example, Gotthelf succeeds in creating a humorous picture of Luise's aunt with sparing strokes when Stößli constantly compares her husband, the donor bailiff.
reception
- February 1920: Hesse mentions the story in “Vivos voco”.
- Poschmann finds the "story of the dowry hunter who succumbs to female cunning" "amusing".
- Place of the action: With this little town Gotthelf drew a loving picture of Büren an der Aare , the birthplace of his mother Elisabeth Bitzius-Kohler.
literature
Used edition
- The notary in the trap. Pp. 316-354. In: Library of German Classics . Henri Poschmann: Gotthelfs Works. In two volumes . Volume 1. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1982 (3rd edition). Text basis: Gotthelf complete edition by Rudolf Hunziker and Hans Bloesch (Munich 1911) as well as the 20-volume edition by Walter Muschg (Basel 1948).
expenditure
- Jeremias Gotthelf: The notary in the trap . In: German Novellenschatz . Edited by Paul Heyse and Hermann Kurz. Vol. 7. 2nd ed. Berlin, [1910], pp. 1-43. In: Weitin, Thomas (Ed.): Fully digitized corpus. The German Novellenschatz . Darmstadt / Konstanz, 2016. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
- Jeremias Gotthelf: The notary in the trap. How Joggeli is looking for a woman . Two stories. Rütten & Loening, Potsdam around 1930. 95 pages, Fraktur.
Secondary literature
- Volker Michels (Ed.): Hermann Hesse. The world in book III. Reviews and essays from 1917–1925 . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 358, last entry
- ↑ Edition used, p. 329, 16. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 329, 10. Zvo
- ↑ So he continues in the description of the soul of the notary: “If he had one, it consisted mainly in the eminent ability to whistle after a little bit, and that continuously until someone whistled before him again. Probably she had a similar set up like trumpeting tobacco boxes or a hurdy-gurdy box. "(Edition used, p. 329, 10. Zvo)
- ↑ Michels, p. 122 above
- ↑ Poschmann in the introduction to the edition used, pp. XXIII, 11. Zvo
- ↑ Büren on the Aare / history